A 10-day camp on art-integrated training for schoolteachers has begun at the Socio Economic Unit Foundation centre at Kalavoor near here.
Forty teachers, selected from across the State, are participating in the camp being organised by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) in association with the National Council of Educational Research and Training, (NCERT). It will conclude on September 30.
It is for the first time that such a camp is being conducted in Kerala, according to the organisers. The project is being taken up as a trainers’ training camp, Manakkala Gopalakrishnan, research officer of the project, told The Hindu . The training is envisaged to foster out-of-the-box thinking and to find multiple solutions to a single problem. It has been found that teaching methods encompassing arts help understand and internalise content in all areas of learning.
The camp focuses on integrating different art forms with school subjects at the primary and upper primary levels. Such a process could demystify complex concepts and make learning an enjoyable task. The package highlights ways in which different subject areas could be taught more effectively through integration of art forms such as music, dance, theatre, drawing, painting, crafts, and design.
Though the teachers are expected to implement art education at the primary level as per NCERT guidelines, many have little guidance on the methodology, in the absence of specific training materials. The NCERT has underlined the need for specialised training camps to equip the teachers with necessary tools for adopting art in education, in tune with the concept of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) of students.
Distinguished persons in theatre, painting and other subjects are handling the sessions. The plan is to conduct training at the district level in the next stage, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said.
